Page 25 of Alpha's Secret Baby Girl
“Yeah,” Lianne agreed, though Rafael was sure she didn’t understand what was going on. “Credit cards are bad. They send people to jail.”
“Do they?” Rafael lifted an eyebrow at his daughter.
She nodded seriously. “It’s like that movie. We never use credit cards.”
“Yes, we do,” Gwen corrected gently. “They’re not bad in and of themselves, sweetheart.”
Lianne stuck out a stubborn jaw and narrowed her eyes at her mother. “They are too!”
Rafael chuckled. “Uh oh. I’d better get out of here before a world war starts.”
“Coward,” Gwen muttered.
But they shared a half-smile. Rafael’s heart warmed. He tousled Lianne’s hair, and she punched his leg. Rafael laughed, holding his hands up in surrender before he headed for the door, feeling lighter than he had in a while.
***
Joshua and Michael were already waiting at the town hall. Not in the office as he expected, but in the main hall of the building. An obstacle course had been set up, and a group of four wolves was taking it, moving in perfect coordination. It was an impressive and artistic sight. The four pulled up at the end of the course and shifted back to human form. All four of them wore stretchy boxers that had stayed in place during the shift, and they saluted to him.
Rafael cast a look over the four. “I take it you’re the four special ops recruits that we called for.”
The tallest of the bunch nodded, a grin stretching over his face. “Yes, sir. Liam, Kit, Paul, and Daniel,” he said, gesturing to each of them in turn. They weren’t much younger than Rafael was, but all four of them burst with a youthful eagerness to please. It was understandable, since most special ops recruits were considered low-class members of their own packs.
“Thank you for coming here, gentlemen. You all know why you’ve been brought to the island, yes?” Rafael asked, clasping his hands behind his back. Joshua and Michael were more casual, leaning against the wall. Both were smirking in the way that meant they were going to mock his ‘over-professional attitude’ later. Bastards.
“Yes, sir,” Kit said eagerly. He had shoulders as broad as any Rafael had seen and had loose sandy-brown hair that looked as though it had never seen a comb. “There are demons on the island that you need us to track down and destroy.”
His eyes gleamed with a determined light. He held himself straight.
“And you don’t find demons strange?” Rafael probed, making sure they were taking this seriously.
Kit shook his head once. “My parents were killed by demons when I was a kid. That’s where I got this.” He pointed at a long, jagged scar across his torso. “Safe to say I’m eager to take out any of those bastards that I can.”
Liam and Daniel both nodded, their expressions both fierce. Paul, on the other hand, smirked.
Rafael focused on him. “Got something to say?”
He shrugged. “Kind of a dumb question if you ask me. We’re being trained to fight demons, why would we find demons strange?”
Michael burst out with a laugh. “He’s got you there, Raf.”
Rafael shot his brother an annoyed look before focusing on the recruits again. He described the location of the attack and the previous locations where demons had been spotted. He was just finishing up when he caught Joshua frowning across the hall. Rafael turned to find Gwen standing near the back entrance. Her arms were wrapped around her middle, as though she was trying to avoid attention. She shrank deeper into herself when she saw him looking.
“Go ahead and start your patrol,” Rafael told the bunch distractedly. “Check in regularly.”
With that, they were dismissed. Joshua and Michael sidled closer as Rafael walked over to Gwen. How much had she heard? This business didn’t concern her. He would take care of the pack’s security and protect Lianne. He didn’t want her to get any more worried than she already was. They hadn’t had the chance to really talk since the previous night, since Lianne had been stuck to Gwen’s side ever since.
Speaking of… “Where’s Lianne?”
“I left her with Chelsey and Kira at the house. I needed to talk with you, and I didn’t want it to be in front of her,” Gwen answered stiffly. “I did call.”
“You knew I was busy,” Rafael answered. His own voice was stiffening despite himself. The tension radiating off Gwen wasn’t her normal tension. But what could have happened in the brief interlude since he left the house?
“Anything we can help with?” Michael asked lazily.
Rafael opened his mouth to tell him to scram, but Gwen spoke first. “Actually, yes. You two can go back to the house and keep an eye out for demons trying to attack Lianne while Rafael and I speak.”
There was a ring of authority to her voice that made Rafael smirk. When she acted like that, it made him glad she had left the pack when she did. Being on her own had given her a confidence boost that Randall would have tried to deny her. His smirk faded as the truthfulness of it hit him. The former Alpha would have done everything he could to beat out the ‘disrespectful attitude toward her betters.’ His jaw tightened, and he looked away.
